Snubs, surprises and favorites for Emmy gold

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap) - Ed O'Neill finally got his Emmy recognition. Katey Sagal didn't. Last year's top female was missing in action. And as usual, the Emmy nominations were a case of all HBO, all the time.

The cable giant, whose domination of the Primetime Emmy Awards has long irritated executives at the broadcast networks who take turns televising the Emmys, once again far outdistanced its competitors when nominations were announced on Thursday morning.

HBO racked up 104 nominations, more than double the total for its closest competitors, CBS (50), NBC (46), PBS (43), Fox (42) and ABC (40).

This was an even more dominant showing than 2010, when HBO had 101 nominations to 63 for ABC and 57 for CBS.

Not only did HBO claim the most-nominated program in the miniseries "Mildred Pierce," which received 21 nods, but it had the third-most-nominated show, "Boardwalk Empire" with 18, and two more of the Top 10, "Game of Thrones" (13 nominations) and "Too Big to Fail" (11).

"Game of Thrones" was perhaps the biggest surprise among the channel's nominees, with its Outstanding Drama Series nomination no doubt benefiting from the fact that no new episodes of AMC's "Breaking Bad" were aired during the eligibility period.

That show's absence also meant that its star, Bryan Cranston, was ineligible after wining the lead actor in a drama series Emmy for the past four years -- opening the door for Timothy Olyphant from FX's acclaimed new series "Justified" to claim one of the slots.